Full disclosure, I grew up extremely Catholic. So this post comes with an insider perspective. I also grew up reading LOTS of comic books.

The Vatican tweeted today their opinion on Batman. You read that right, Batman. In this article, they state the Dark Knight has grown more bitter, violent and vengeful. They urge parents to be cautious of exposing their kids to the comic, alerting them that he is no longer the Adam West version of the Caped Crusader they used to know.

Apparently, the Catholic Church thinks that reading Batman comics and watching the recent movies is bad for kids. While exposing kids to violence of any sort is generally a bad thing, I would argue that exposing them to images on a weekly basis of a human being bloodied and tortured (Jesus on the cross), stories of genocide through hell-fire and damnation, as well as closeted pedophiles is worse. Catholic guilt has way more damaging results on a child's psyche than any Batman comic does.

I would be willing to wager that Batman isn't bad for kids. Protecting child molesting priests is. Keep it classy Catholicism.